As much grief as some of the oldsters give it, I thought Harley Race's WWF run was ingenious. Race knew he was too old/too tired to be "the guy" in a promotion and wrung out the last few years of decent workrate by going for the big bucks as one of Hogan's foils. And really, I don't see how a royalty gimmick demeaned his reputation. Yeah, it was a bit more cartoonish than what he was used to but I don't think it made him look stupid like Dusty with the polka dots or Steamboat carrying a komodo dragon to the ring.

I was sarcastic. Websites like Cawthon's make it fairly clear that Hogan's schedule, while crazy, wasn't 600 matches per year or whatever bullshit he's most recently said. Harley Race was not out to kill Hogan. Etc.

As much grief as some of the oldsters give it, I thought Harley Race's WWF run was ingenious. Race knew he was too old/too tired to be "the guy" in a promotion and wrung out the last few years of decent workrate by going for the big bucks as one of Hogan's foils. And really, I don't see how a royalty gimmick demeaned his reputation. Yeah, it was a bit more cartoonish than what he was used to but I don't think it made him look stupid like Dusty with the polka dots or Steamboat carrying a komodo dragon to the ring.

To most NWA fans, it was as well received as a Ric Flair as Spartacus gimmick would've went over in 1990. Race went from blood and guts tough talker in a suit to a gimmick.

And when a gimmick is "King of Wrestling", I don't see it as that demeaning. If Race really objected to it, he wouldn't have kept it when he did his last runs in AWA or NWA. Not saying it was a career highlight (or even a great gimmick), just a smart way for him to wring out the big bucks while his career faded.

Watching WrestleMania III and IV this weekend, I have to definitely agree with that assessment. There was no reason for a guy of his size and his age to be doing crazy bumps for a four minute mid-card match or a shitty battle royal.

Rumble 89 might be the worst example. The hardcore matches with Hogan in 88 (where the much older Race took the bad bumps because Hogan was too busy working every match on his 500 card schedule...no wonder he held that gun to the Hulkster's head!) were really dumb. Yeah, Race's bumps made them fun to watch but he shouldn't have been doing it. After those injuries he comes back to work the Rumble match with Haku...and does big turnbuckle bumps, outside bumps, and takes a stiff kick to the face.

And when a gimmick is "King of Wrestling", I don't see it as that demeaning. If Race really objected to it, he wouldn't have kept it when he did his last runs in AWA or NWA. Not saying it was a career highlight (or even a great gimmick), just a smart way for him to wring out the big bucks while his career faded.

And really.. a royalty gimmick is hardly the worst thing he could've been saddled with. It's not like he said he was King George time-travelling to the 1980s to prove his mettle in the wrestling ring.

" Hulk Hogan discussed trying to get Vince McMahon to sign Sting after WrestleMania III during an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine. “I have unbelievable respect for Sting – he doesn’t realize how good he really is,” Hogan told FSM. “Sting should have already had his New York (WWE) run. I’ll tell you something; when I got red-hot after WrestleMania III, I was begging Vince to get Sting in the WWF so I could turn heel at some point. He had the blonde hair, he was 10 times more athletic than me, and I believed this guy could have the same run as Hulkamania, but take it 10 times bigger. I was telling Vince (McMahon), ‘Let me get this guy over’, because after beating Andre, if they’d brought Sting in and had him beat me, it would have made him this tall (gestures with his hand above his head). But Sting wouldn’t come; we tried and tried, but he just would not jump. Vince even talked to him last year, but still Sting wouldn’t go.”

Excerpt from an interview Hulk Hogan did with Fighting Spirit Magazine…

“I’ve heard all these urban legends about Randy doing something to piss Vince off,” said Hogan. “I’ve heard two or three different stories, and I don’t know if any of those are true, but he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and I would love to be the one that inducts him. I’ve got a speech for him ready to go. I just think it’s a must that he’s in the Hall of Fame; he was so influential in this business, especially in the WWF, and in my career.

“You know, he’s the only guy we could pass the belt to, and we wouldn’t lose money. You gave the belt to The Ultimate Warrior – I don’t want to drop a bunch of names – and right away the revenue went down. Give the belt to ‘Macho Man’, and things would stay the same, or get better.”

“For me, it would be cool to induct him. We had a rift for about 10 years, and then right before he passed away, I was getting an EKG, when I hear (mimicking Randy’s voice) ‘Yeah, what’s up, brother?’ And I looked over, and he was there, looking great. I said, ‘Hey Mach, how you doing?’ I shook his hand, and introduced him to my wife, Jennifer. He’s like, ‘Hello lovely lady, how ya doing?’ Jennifer said to him, ‘Oh, Mr. Macho, I’ve heard so much about you. You know, we’ve got three or four lawyers at the house today, so we’re gonna cook up. We’d love to have you over.’ But he just went, ‘I don’t dig lawyers, baby, maybe we could start out with a phone call?’

In an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, Hulk Hogan said that he wanted to face the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI in 1990 as a heel.

He said: "Vince and I were best friends, but when we talked about money, we were enemies. So I went [to WCW] with the red and yellow, beat Ric Flair, and Hulkamania took off again. Then, creatively, I turned into a bad guy, which I always wanted to do in the WWF, but nobody wanted me to. I always said, 'I could be the best bad guy ever. Just let me do it', but no-one wanted me to be a bad guy. At Warrior's time, I really wanted to fuck him as a bad guy; I wanted to beat The Ultimate Warrior in Toronto, but as a heel. I just thought it would be intense, and I would be the best bad guy ever. I could have done it, and then said, 'Forget the prayers and the vitamins, I did it for the money!' But it's just creative differences, and Vince knows what he's doing, believe me. I just wanted to try something different in the WWF."

When he turned heel to form the nWo with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash at Bash at the Beach on July 7, 1996, he was very hesitant. Eric Bischoff wrote in his 2006 autobiography Controversy Creates Cash that Hogan was dimissive towards the idea, but then after Nash and Hall became a force on WCW programming, he suggested to Bischoff that he be the third man. He hadn't spoke to Bischoff in months at that point. Until the PPV happened, Bischoff said he wasn't sure if Hogan would follow through, and had Sting agree to the idea just in case Hogan changed his mind.

Excerpt from an interview Hulk Hogan did with Fighting Spirit Magazine…

“I’ve heard all these urban legends about Randy doing something to piss Vince off,” said Hogan. “I’ve heard two or three different stories, and I don’t know if any of those are true, but he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and I would love to be the one that inducts him. I’ve got a speech for him ready to go. I just think it’s a must that he’s in the Hall of Fame; he was so influential in this business, especially in the WWF, and in my career.

“You know, he’s the only guy we could pass the belt to, and we wouldn’t lose money. You gave the belt to The Ultimate Warrior – I don’t want to drop a bunch of names – and right away the revenue went down. Give the belt to ‘Macho Man’, and things would stay the same, or get better.”

“For me, it would be cool to induct him. We had a rift for about 10 years, and then right before he passed away, I was getting an EKG, when I hear (mimicking Randy’s voice) ‘Yeah, what’s up, brother?’ And I looked over, and he was there, looking great. I said, ‘Hey Mach, how you doing?’ I shook his hand, and introduced him to my wife, Jennifer. He’s like, ‘Hello lovely lady, how ya doing?’ Jennifer said to him, ‘Oh, Mr. Macho, I’ve heard so much about you. You know, we’ve got three or four lawyers at the house today, so we’re gonna cook up. We’d love to have you over.’ But he just went, ‘I don’t dig lawyers, baby, maybe we could start out with a phone call?’

That story is actually true. It was confirmed by Savage's mom (that's who Savage was at the doctor with).

I had to watch the movie because the first few minutes made me laugh so hard.

Mr. Nanny is one of the best bad comedies of all time, lots of laughs in this one. This podcast captured it p. well, even in saying that Hulk should have broken more stuff (I would have liked to see a few big bumps myself).

Did y'all listen to his interview with Bill Simmons a few months back? "BS Report" was an oddly fitting name for that podcast. Hogan claimed:

a)that he tore both of his biceps slamming Andre, b)he was the first person ever to pin Andre, c)this was the first time anyone had body slammed Andre (he had done it once before himself!) and d)that he was unaware who was going to win on the day of Wrestlemania III.

Now that this thread is bumped, this may be the right thread to post in.

Not sure if Brutus and Hulk had a falling out but some guy on Twitter claimed that The Booty Man sold him a signed Hulk photo recently and Hulk said he never gave Brutus any merchandise to sell or permission to sell anything and apologized to people Ed Leslie is tricking.

Now that I think about it, it might've been kind of cool to see X-Pac bump around like a pinball for Hogan's punches back in the day. It probably would have been a slightly less (or more?) goofy version of Hogan/HBK.